to keep (one’s) cool

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 455: Ending a Bad Date.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 455. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

We have a website, it’s eslpod.com. On it, you can find a Learning Guide for this episode that contains additional information to help you improve your English even faster.

This episode is called “Ending a Bad Date.” It’s a dialogue between Fatima and Rob, who are on a romantic date together that doesn’t go very well. Let’s get started.

I was on a date from hell.

I agreed to go out with this guy who lives in the same apartment building as I do, but he’s turned out to be a real creep. He was nice enough at the start of the date, but then he started drinking. Now he’s drunk and I’m miserable.

I wanted to let him down gently since I’d be seeing him around the apartment building, but I didn’t want